


Promises and salve

by DmitriMolotov



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Minecraft, One Shot, could be part of a bigger AU, maybe a preview
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 13:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7686034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DmitriMolotov/pseuds/DmitriMolotov
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: <em>Things you said when you were crying.</em><br/>“I don’t know if I can do this…”</p><p>He’d made a promise.<br/>He couldn’t go back on his word.<br/>But Jeremy’s time was fast running out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises and salve

“I don’t know if I can do this…”

Ryan’s hands were shaking. He fumbled at the bottles, knocking one over, his vision bleary through tears. He’d been at it for days, running on close to no sleep, trying every combination he could think of, anything that might even hold a remote chance of working, but he was running out of ideas.

He’d made a promise.

_“I’ll find a cure…”_

He couldn’t go back on his word.

_“I promise; I won’t let you die like this.”_

But Jeremy’s time was fast running out.

He’d been holding back tears, swallowing the lump in his throat, but as the bottle fell, rolled across the workbench and shattered on the ground, his resolve faltered and tears finally spilled down his cheeks.

~

Jeremy’s flesh had started to rot at the extremities, despite the immediate amputation at the site of the bite. It was Ryan’s quick-thinking and Michael’s razor-sharp diamond blade that had prevented his immediate turn, but whatever venom or dark magic was transmitted in the bite was already in his blood and evidently, it seemed what little remained in his body was enough to trigger the transformation.  The same blade that spared his life so far had also dispatched of the zombie fiend responsible. Michael had hacked the body to pieces in his rage while Ryan had tended Jeremy’s injury. His left arm amputated at the elbow, Ryan had apologetically applied a tourniquet, yelling at Gavin to tell Jack and Geoff, to make sure his lab was ready and stocked with the required ingredients to make healing potions. He instructed them to raid the underground vault if necessary.

_“Hold on Jeremy.”_

When Ryan first noticed the transformation had started, he almost didn’t want to tell him. He’d be so scared. None of them had ever been bitten, certainly no one who had been had survived.

So instead he’d made a promise.

It was a promise he couldn’t keep.

~

Ryan was still at his workbench when Jeremy passed. The others surrounded him in his bed, held his hand, laughed when he said green had always been his colour, cried when he took his final breath. But Ryan kept working. No one was able to convince him to leave his post.

When the others set up the funeral pyre, Ryan finally snapped out of it.

 _Snapped_ being the operative word.

“You can’t! I need him! I can _fix_ this!”

_Yes, he was aware he sounded mad. No, that wasn’t going to stop him._

“I’m so close, Geoff,” Ryan pleaded, his blue eyes rimmed red and bloodshot from lack of sleep, “Please. There’s still time. Just let me try.”

Geoff frowned, but Ryan could already tell he was going to cave, “He’s gone buddy, you gotta accept it.”

Ryan shook his head adamantly, “I can bring him back.” There was an edge of hysteria in his voice.

“He’s gonna come back anyway Ryan, and when he does you know it’s not gonna be Lil J anymore. I’m sorry. That’s just how it works.”

“Then just give me that long. The change takes at least 24 hours. Just one more day. I’ll put him down myself if I can’t bring him back,” the words sounded desperate, the empty promise spoken with complete conviction that he couldn’t fail.

“Ryan, please, really think about this-”

“You think I haven’t _thought_ about it?” Ryan cut him off, practically yelling now, “This is _all_ I’ve thought about Geoff! I _know_ I can do this.”

“…Ryan?” Gavin spoke up gently.

Ryan’s head snapped around to the sound of his voice, he was on edge and feeling threatened, like an animal backed into a corner, ready to put up a fight.

“I’ll help, ok? Just tell me what to do,” Gavin’s eyes shimmered with tears, “I won’t get in the way.”

Michael stepped forward with Gavin and nodded solemnly, “Me too.”

Ryan let out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding.

“Thank you.”

Jack and Geoff exchanged a nervous glance, but Michael and Gavin returned a look of support and determination. If there was even a chance Ryan could be right…

_They had to let him try._

Geoff slowly nodded, “Ok. You have 24 hours.”

“Thank you,” Ryan repeated, turning and hurrying back to his lab. “Bring Jeremy!” He called over his shoulder.

Geoff put a hand out to stop Michael and Gavin from following and waited until Ryan was out of earshot.

“If things go bad, promise me…”

Michael cut him off, knowing what he was about to ask of him, “I’ll take care of it Geoff. Trust me.”

Geoff nodded and let them go.

He hoped Ryan knew what he was doing.

~

“A _salve_?” Gavin exclaimed, eyes wide, matching the grin spreading over his face, “You’re kidding right?”

Ryan didn’t look amused, just tired, “It’s like a balm;” he explained, “just rub it into the affected areas.”

“So… his whole body?” Michael raised an eyebrow, glancing at Jeremy’s body on the table.

“…pretty much.” Ryan shrugged, holding out the pot for the lads.

Gavin shook his head, still grinning, “Leave it to you to make a resurrection _salve_ Ryan.”

“What? It’s not like I could get him to drink a potion!” The faintest trace of a smile cracked at the edge of Ryan’s lips.

“…well, you do have a point there.” Michael was quietly hopeful, grinning back.

He took the pot containing the thick, foul-smelling cream and experimentally dug a finger into it, immediately wrinkling his nose in disgust. He handed the pot to Gavin, who scooped a heaping glob of the stuff out of the jar, gagging slightly at the smell.

“What’s even in this Ryan?” Gavin gagged again.

Ryan hesitated, “Uh… I’m not sure you want to know.”

“Why aren’t _you_ touching it?” Michael suddenly realised.

Ryan’s eyes fell to the ground and he blanched slightly, “It’s not dangerous,” He assured them quickly, “I just… I’m not sure if there are any… side-effects yet.”

Michael raised an eyebrow, “What _kind_ of side effects?”

Ryan kicked at the ground a little, growing impatient and uncomfortable, “I’m not sure yet… just… look, would you put it on Jeremy already?”

Michael and Gavin got to work, rubbing the salve into Jeremy’s skin – or what remained of it anyway. Gavin looked almost as green as some parts of Jeremy, but he kept working.

Ryan waited patiently, watching for any trace of life. The cream should have restorative properties. There was no way it could be dangerous, but Ryan wasn’t sure if it was capable of raising the dead. His stomach turned uneasily at the alternative capability of the balm.

The potentially unintended side-effect he was worried about.

_Immortality._

That was why he refused to touch it. If the salve granted immortality to Michael and Gavin, well, that was his gift to them… But if it didn’t work to bring Jeremy back, for him it would be less a gift than a curse.

He didn’t want that.

He’d let Jack and Geoff make up their own minds about it when he knew for sure, but for right now, all he could do was wait. And hope.

As Michael and Gavin worked, Ryan noticed they seemed to have more energy; Gavin progressively looked less like he was going to be sick and more like he could run a marathon. Their eyes practically sparkled with energy.

“How are you feeling?” Ryan asked cautiously.

“Fucking great man. This stuff makes you feel good,” Michael responded enthusiastically.

Gavin nodded agreement, “It’s _almost_ worth the fact it smells like horse anus.”

Ryan laughed at that, at least their spirits were up.  

“Notice any changes …in Jeremy?” he asked, even more hesitantly.

Michael looked back at him with a worried expression, “Not yet man, give it time.”

Ryan just nodded.

They were running out of time. Any minute now Jeremy might come back, but not as Lil J, as one of _them_ … If that happened, he’d said he would deal with it himself…

He’d promised Geoff… another one he couldn’t keep.

He silently pinned all his hope on this salve. It was all he had left to cling to. If Jeremy couldn’t be revived…

He squeezed his eyes shut and blocked out the world, imagining it as it might be. Without Jeremy.

He could survive. He was sure of that.

_It wasn’t fair though._

“Ry-an…?” Gavin’s voice wavered, cutting through his daydream.

“What Gav-?” His eyes snapped open in time to see Jeremy’s fingers alternately clenching and unclenching, his legs twitching in response to the salve… _at least, that was what he hoped…_

He jumped to his feet and ran to Jeremy’s side, clasping his hand between his own.

“Jeremy?!”

Michael and Gavin took a cautious step back.

Michael gently nudged Gavin towards the door. “Get Geoff and Jack,” he muttered as he picked up his sword, mentally steeling himself to use it if he had to.

Ryan searched Jeremy’s face for any signs of recognition.

“Jeremy? Can you hear me?”

He squeezed his hand in his own.

Jeremy’s cold fingers squeezed back.

“C’mon, answer me Jeremy…”

Michael was ready. “Ryan, stand back man. If it’s not him…”

Ryan shook his head, “It’s him… I know it is. Jeremy? Answer me.”

“Ryan, c’mon, step back…”

“Jeremy, you can do it buddy. Please. Open your eyes, Jeremy.”

Jeremy’s grip tightened, cold fingers like stone, crushing around Ryan’s hand, but he squeezed back reassuringly.

Geoff, Jack and Gavin appeared in the doorway, eyes flicking nervously between the three figures in the room. Michael with his sword drawn and at the ready, Ryan protectively hunched over Jeremy on the table. If Jeremy _had_ turned, that was it for Ryan. Either Jeremy would get him, or Michael would. Everyone held their breath.

Jeremy’s eyes fluttered open. Wild, dazed and confused, the silence felt like it stretched for an eternity.

“…Ryan?”

The crew let out a collective breath of relief.

“You kept your promise,” Jeremy barely whispered.

“I did,” Ryan smiled warmly, tears collecting at the corners of his eyes.

“Welcome back buddy.”


End file.
